Mystery still surrounds Teaneck slaying, but house where it happened is finally sold

Joan Davis was found stabbed and bludgeoned to death inside her Alpine Dr home. 10years later her murder is unsolved and her home was sold at auction.
Tariq Zehawi, John Meore and Linda Voorhis, North Jersey Record

TEANECK — Boards still cover the windows of the Tudor-style house at the corner of Alpine Drive and Minell Place. The brick house has sat empty since August 2010, when Joan Davis, a 74-year-old political watchdog, was found stabbed, her hands bound, as flames tore through her home.

But after nine years, changes may be coming to the house at 976 Alpine Drive.

An investor bought the property at a foreclosure auction last month for roughly $270,000. The man who picked up the phone for Alpine Closter LLC, the company listed as the purchaser, said he buys foreclosed houses to rent out or renovate and sell. The man declined to give his name and seemed to be unaware of the property’s history.

Neighbors said they’ll be happy to see new life at the corner that has stood for nine years as a persistent reminder of a violent death.

“The house has been in neglect for a long time,” said Paul Ostrow, a former Teaneck mayor who lives about three blocks away. “It’s been the focal point of one of the biggest mysteries to ever happen in Teaneck. People walk past and can’t help but think of what happened there.”

Davis, who lived alone and largely kept to herself, was a fixture at Township Council meetings and a frequent critic of local officials.

Her killing prompted the town to change a rule requiring speakers at council meetings to give their name and address.

Exterior photo of the house located at 976 Alpine in Teaneck where Joan Davis, a well known gadfly in town, was murdered 9 years ago. The house was set on fire and the case remains unsolved. Township officials have discussed purchasing the house and knocking it down to turn the property into open space.(Photo: Mitsu Yasukawa/Northjersey.com)

“I was in shock when it happened,” said Deputy Mayor Elie Katz, who would often give Davis rides to council meetings. “When I was mayor I would drive her — her house was on my way. She would scream and yell at me, and then I would drive her home.”

Ostrow remembered Davis occasionally knocking on his door to drop off long letters detailing her opinions on “anything and everything in Teaneck.”

Davis left no will and had no close relatives. The bank that held a reverse mortgage she had taken out shortly before her death had been paying taxes on the property until it was foreclosed.

Cold case

Before the creation of the task force, detectives would pick up one of the 100 or so Bergen County cold cases when they had the time. Now, there is a unit dedicated to solving these crimes, said Robert Anzilotti, chief of detectives at the prosecutor’s office.

“Detectives and supervisors are focused 100% of their work time on nothing but unsolved cases,” he said. “They don’t get pulled when we have an active homicide or something going on in the office.”

A house still remains vacant years after an unsolved murder on Alpine Dr in Teaneck, N.J. (Photo: Tariq Zehawi and John Meore USA Today Network)

Cold cases present many challenges to investigators, Anzilotti said. Law enforcement techniques change and memories fade over time. In the Joan Davis case, detectives were also hampered by how small her circle was.

“There were very few people who really knew what her daily habits were and her lifestyle because she had no family members or close friends she kept in touch with,” Anzilotti said. “That reclusiveness didn’t help us understand her life as much as we would have liked to.”

The crime happened at night and it was raining, which kept potential witnesses inside. The house was set on fire, destroying evidence, Anzilotti said.

Murder homes

Many so-called murder homes scare off house hunters. Houses that were the scene of a particularly brutal or well-publicized homicide may stay vacant for years. Some states require sellers to disclose if somebody died on the property. But in New Jersey, it is up to the buyer to uncover that information.

Just seven months after Davis was killed, another homicide shook Teaneck. Robert Cantor, a 59-year-old software engineer, was shot and left in his basement as the house became engulfed in fire. His Elm Avenue home sat as a burned-out shell until it was razed to its foundation and a new house was built in its place in 2014.

Despite the cases’ similarities, detectives determined they were unrelated.

Andy Abraham, who lives down the block on Alpine Drive, said many of the homes in the neighborhood have changed hands in the years since Davis’ death. Young families have moved in, and the fear that rattled neighbors in the months after the slaying has faded.

“After the initial shock, time passed," Abraham said. "Once we knew it wasn’t part of a serial killing, people weren’t quite as worried."

Before Davis’ house was sold at auction, township officials had floated the idea of buying it with open space funds, knocking it down and turning the corner lot into a small, grassy park.

Joan Davis.(Photo: NorthJersey.com staff)

“I still think the township should try to purchase it,” said Katz, who first brought the idea to the council. “Any investor will have trouble selling it because of its history. The residents have been living next to this abandoned, boarded-up property for almost 10 years. It’s an eyesore.”

Whatever happens with the property, neighbors said they look forward to some closure nine years after the murder unsettled the quiet neighborhood.

Alyse Kamara, who moved to her Alpine Drive home 18 years ago, remembers seeing Davis pruning her irises and tending to her garden.

When a police officer came to her door the morning after the murder to ask if she had seen anything, it was a shock.

“It was horrible and disturbing,” she said. “It’s been so many years, the neighbors, we all sort of feel like it’s a little bit of a dark cloud. Hopefully this is something that will breathe new life into the property, into the neighborhood, and there can be some positivity after something so awful.”

Email: burrow@northjersey.com

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